The St. Johns herald., 1887-09-15
GOOD ADVICE TO PARENTS:

Somebody wLO Knows Gives Valuable
 Suggestions on the Good Government
 of Boys and Girls.
 It seems as if in this age of civiliza. ton that physical punishment ought never to be resorted to. It is not neces- sary. parent has full control of a child when it is young, and should keep it.
 It can never be done by whipping, for boy that is punished that way al- ways looks forward to the time when he will be too large to be whipped, and as he grows he has to be whipped a lit tie harder every time, which in self proves that form of punishment to be useless and wrong.
 In any other method of punishing a child can be shown that he is simply en- during the consequences of disobedient act, unless, of course, more injustice is practiced, for children have fine sense of ius-:ce and are not easily deceived by preteL;se fl it.
 Too much punishment is as dangerous as too little. It is when one has a glimmer of this idea that he quotes the proverb, spare the rod" etc., to fortify himself, when the proverb would be better forgotten. "Great rewA ds be- token fallen state" The same is true of much punishment.
 The object of ali punishment Is, of course, to improve a child, to trim of, or subdue its faults of character as they appear, and give better chance for all the good qualities to develop. There are ways of punishing besides whipping 2 that will defeat this end, and the whole subject is matter 10 be grayely con- 6idered by parents of young children.
 It is common practice to deprive a child of some anticipated pleasure be- cause of disobedience. The effect of such a punishment depends upon the cir cumstances.
 Suppose, for instance, boy has a promise that he shall go to a certain circus that Is coming in few days, but an occasion arises in which some sort of discipline must be resorted to, and he is tod he cannot go to the circus.
 In such case all the antagonism of the boys nature Is aroused. He can sec no justice in the punishment. He sub mits becau, he is obliged to and the only relief he has is in hating heaLthor- fly over him, ard no doubt feels a con- tempt for time, for one that can give a promise and then take it back. All the matters in relation to the coming of the circus, his mates all going, and every thing in connection with It will contin- ually keep his angry feelings uppermost and he will all the time feel the injus- uce of the broken promise Instead of repentance for his misdeed.
 Now If, instead, he had been told that he could not go out of the yard again for any pleasure, except the circus, for 0 week, nor have any boys in his own yard to play with him during that time. but must amuse himself as best he could alone in consequence of his wrong do- ing, he would many times during the week wish he had benaved himself prop erly and would not have that hateful feeling aroused towards his parents. He would not be made unhappy by his punishment; he would have chance to think of the matter fairly and would not feel abused and outraged however uncomfortable the restriction became. Instead of feeling angry at 1t he would wish he had not done wrong. 4 child needs all the sunshine 1t can have to be fitted for the storms that come In after life, and if in any doubt whether pun ishment, in certain cases, is really ne- cessity or not. always give the child the benefit of the doubt
 A happy child will be the mo obe. dient- The docillty of the slave is not what we want in children. "The camel moves no swifter before the whip, only behind the flute. e."-[Good Housekeeping.